The Policy Research Working Paper titled ‘Two Hundred and Fifty-Thousand Democracies: A Review of Village Government in India’ was released by the World Bank Group.
In 1992, the 73rd Amendment to the Indian Constitution created 250,000 village democracies (called Gram Panchayats) covering 800 million citizens.
Panchayati Raj Institutions rely almost entirely on grants made by state and national authorities.
On average, 0.67 Panchayat Secretaries per Gram Panchayat only available, with the number falling to 0.33 in states like Uttar Pradesh.
The 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992 gave constitutional status to the PRIs and established a system of uniform structure, elections, reservations.